The effect of wash cleaning and demagnetization process on the fly ash physico-chemical properties

Problems related in this study concern the possibility of improving the physico-chemical properties of fly ash used as a base granular material in moulding mixtures. The investigations were carried out mainly to evaluate the process of the fly ash modification performed in order to stabilize its mineralogical and chemical composition. Changes in chemical composition, specific surface and helium density of fly ash after the process of its wash cleaning and demagnetization were examined. The analysis of the data has proved that the process of wash cleaning considerably reduces the content of sodium and potassium. Calcium and magnesium are washed out, too. The wash cleaning process of fly ash reduces also its true density. This fact can be due to the washing out of illite as well as some fractions of haematite (the grains weakly bonded to the glassy phase). The process of demagnetization allows removing about 25.7% of the magnetic phase calculated in terms of Fe2O3. The process of demagnetization is accompanied by a decrease in the content of aluminium, sodium, potassium and calcium, and a reduction in the size of the specific surface by over one half. The possible processes of transformation have also been discussed.